Month: April 2014

It’s been nearly a decade since Jonathan Glazer last directed a feature. 2004’s “Birth” was a misunderstood masterpiece, holding out hope that the helmer would return quickly to continue his exploration of the unknown. He took his time, but “Under the Skin” is an interesting follow-up to the bottomless ache of “Birth.” Here, there are no emotions, only observance with a sci-fi edge, merging horror and mystery into an often indescribable viewing experience that’s visually precise but dramatically frigid. “Under the Skin” isn’t a film of explanation, asking the audience to immerse themselves in distorted visions and unsettling encounters, working toward an unknown destination that never quite arrives, though the journey is sporadically riveting. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

These days, if an animated film hits big at the box office, there’s no way a studio is going to stop the party at one installment. With 2011’s “Rio,” there isn’t much room for extension, with the production doing a solid storytelling sweep, leaving few unanswered questions behind. However, with nearly a half-billion in global grosses, the screenwriters have dreamed up an all new adventure for fraidy-cat Spix’s macaw, Blu, who arrives with a few new friends, a soundtrack of songs, and a different destination. Missing the freshness and unexpected charm of the original effort, “Rio 2” is more entertaining than stimulating, with the strain to keep the money train rolling showing through much of the feature. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

More is more when it comes to the action in “The Raid 2: Berandal.” A sequel to the 2011 cult hit, “The Raid: Redemption,” this new round of ultraviolence pulls out all the stops in terms of broken bones and slashed skin, going out of its way to outdo the original’s frightening scale of aggression. Also on the to-do list is a quest to turn a contained plotline of survival into a crime saga worthy of “Godfather” complexity. Writer/director Gareth Evans aims big with this continuation, but in his lust for glory, he’s failed to trim the fat, making “Berandal” punch drunk, ugly, and, at times, endless. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Vivian Maier is big business these days, and it’s a shame she’s not around to experience the celebration. Of course, if she were alive, it seems unlikely there would be a documentary focused on her art. An obsessive photographer who lived a secretive existence as a hoarder and nanny, Maier’s shrouded life is the subject of “Finding Vivian Maier,” which seeks to grasp her elusive personality and personal history while rummaging through her visual achievements, which made her the darling of the photography scene a few years after his death in 2009 at the age of 83. An artist searching for a reflective representation of life during her travels, Maier was also a complicated woman cocooned by her mental illness, making this story of discovery all the more profound. And who better to explore this narrative than the man who stands to financially benefit the most from this newfound attention. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The makers of “Jinn” are aiming fairly high with this release. Although filmed in 2010, the picture is being issued with big plans for a sequel, while emphasis has been placed on selling the specialized car featured in the movie. It’s this level of forward thinking that’s ultimately confusing, as it’s unlikely anyone will want to see “Jinn” the first place. A crude mix of horror, “Harry Potter,” and religious idealism, the effort is a mess with a central conceit that makes little sense, forcing writer/director Ajmal Zaheer Ahmad to put all his concentration on visual effects, hoping some razzle-dazzle will keep audiences from noticing the often nonsensical plot and utter lack of tension. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After the wreckage caused by “The Avengers” and the kickoff of Phase Two in the Marvel Studios master plan of superhero cinema domination with last year’s “Iron Man 3” and “Thor: The Dark World,” it seemed as though Captain America’s relatively earthbound activities wouldn’t be able to find renewed life in the midst of all the magic and crunching armor. After all, 2011’s “Captain America: The First Avenger” is the second lowest grossing Marvel production so far, revealing a hesitance on part of the audience to accept such a figure of freedom, a boldly painted defender of democracy. Smartly, the screenwriters of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” have traveled within, largely forgoing massive theatrics to explore paranoia and corruption as the ultimate foe of our hero. Yes, there’s also a super-assassin with a metal arm leaping around the feature, but for the most part, this sequel works on a more analytical level, drawing parallels to our modern woes of government intrusion as it plays with the conventions of a comic book adaptation. In every single way, “The Winter Soldier” improves on “The First Avenger,” finding a fitting new direction for the character. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Every now and again there comes an animated film that serves as a reminder that not everything aimed toward a family audience emerges from the punch press of Hollywood. The French effort “Ernest & Celestine” has no fast food tie-in and blessedly no bathroom humor. Instead, it leads with warmth of personality and succinct thematic interests, while boasting some of the most magnificent animation I’ve seen in quite some time. Gorgeous, humorous, and endearing, I don’t think there’s a single frame in “Ernest & Celestine” that isn’t absolutely wonderful. Do your kids a favor and seek it out. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

If there was an opportunity to view both volumes of “Nymphomaniac” together, or perhaps watch director Lars Von Trier’s five hour director’s cut, maybe the ritualistic demoralization that infests “Volume II” would feel more organic. Away from the work for a few weeks, and the second half of this sexualized odyssey feels strangely anticlimactic in a way that doesn’t resemble Von Trier’s original intent. While continuing its interests in disturbing imagery and storytelling deconstruction, “Volume II” is missing a sense of balance with the provocative instincts of the first installment. “Nymphomaniac” finally comes to a close, but its sensations don’t last nearly as long as previously imagined, finding Von Trier’s morbid sense of humor standing in the way of greatness. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

With her starring debut in Steven Soderbergh’s “Haywire,” former MMA fighter Gina Carano made quite an impression with her action hero moves, thousand-yard stare, and believability when it came to the pummeling of enemies. After a brief supporting turn in “Fast & Furious 6,” Carano returns starring status with “In the Blood,” one of those low-budget scrappers that finds a corner of the world to wreck with violence and iffy screenwriting. While the thought of Carano punching and kicking her way around the Caribbean sounds irresistible, “In the Blood” is directed by John Stockwell, who has a habit of making potential fun feel like a prison sentence. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Goodbye World” is a post-apocalyptic film in the vaguest of ways, electing to avoid scenes of mass disaster to concentrate on the human struggle of survival, and even that’s not very interesting to the production. More of a reunion picture than an end-of-days chiller, “Goodbye World” does feature a tempting premise and a riveting first act, building a promising collection of characters facing a baffling series of events that tease worldwide paralysis, yet co-writer/director Dennis Hennelly prefers to focus on the selfish needs of alarmingly myopic people, altering the doomsday mood from one of panic to diluted domestic disturbances. In this movie, the world really does end with a whimper. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com